SINGAPORE – When American film-maker Cassius Michael Kim first came to know about the 1MDB saga, its reach boggled his mind.

“There’ve been scandals like Enron and Bernie Madoff. Now, there is the FTX crypto scandal with Sam Bankman-Fried. None of them were as outlandish as 1MDB,” he says of the corruption, bribery and money-laundering conspiracy involving the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) that first unravelled in 2015.

Through Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho, who goes by Jho Low, the money flowed into respected financial institutions, the ranks of Middle Eastern royalty and lavish Las Vegas parties that drew the likes of American actor Leonardo DiCaprio and American musicians Kanye West and Pharrell Williams.

Adds Kim, 43, who was speaking to The Straits Times in early October at a media event at indie cinema The Projector: “It had connections to all aspects of society – from people in Hollywood to bankers in Goldman Sachs. It entangled so many people, many of whom are still not held accountable.

“The subject is a dream for film-makers.”

Kim and his team have made the 98-minute documentary Man On The Run, with the title referring to Low, who remains at large.

The film opens in Singapore cinemas on Thursday.

After working as a news producer at broadcasters CNN and ABC, among others, Kim set up his label The Smoking Section in 2017 and helmed the documentary short film 7 Years And Counting: The Unjust Imprisonment Of Marvin Guy (2021), about a man who allegedly killed a police officer.

Man On The Run marks Kim’s feature debut as a director.

It took home the Best Feature Documentary prize at the 2023 Munich Film Awards and was selected as the opening night film for the 2023 DocuWest Film Festival.

Among the writer-director’s research materials was the 2018 book Billion Dollar Whale by Wall Street Journal reporters Tom Wright and Bradley Hope.

It details how Low defrauded the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund of US$4.5 billion (S$6.15 billion) by steering the Malaysian government headed by then-prime minister Najib Razak.

The reverberations are still being felt.

In April, Pras Michel, an American rapper formerly from hip-hop group Fugees, was found guilty of helping Low and the Chinese government get an audience with high-ranking officials, including former United States presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama.

In May, it was reported that Low was believed to be under house arrest in China.

Kim’s film includes on-camera interviews with British journalist Clare Rewcastle Brown, founder of the Sarawak Report blog and radio station Radio Free Sarawak, who in 2015 published stories alleging the misuse of 1MDB funds.

There are also interviews with Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, and publisher and chief executive Ho Kay Tat of The Edge Media Group, which beginning in 2014 wrote about the financial troubles at 1MDB.

Kim and his team spent three weeks in Malaysia in 2022, which was when they interviewed Najib, who at the time had been convicted of corruption and was still defending himself in court.

“It’s impossible to tell the story without including his voice. As for his reasons about why he sat down for the interview, only he knows. I can only imagine that he thought that any publicity is good publicity at this point,” says Kim.

Suffused throughout Man On The Run is a moral viewpoint, an element that Kim believes is missing from previously released documentaries about the scandal.

The film includes interviews with ordinary Malaysian citizens, seeking their views about the scandal and how it has affected their lives, as money that might have been used for national improvement projects has been siphoned away.

In the US, the manner in which powerful men involved in the scandal have escaped prosecution has left Kim disillusioned about the way justice operates.

“The more you steal, the less likely you will be held accountable. Steal a candy bar and the police might get involved. Steal billions of dollars and a president might shake your hand,” he says.

The Malaysian struggle for truth and justice in the courts holds lessons for the US, as Trump stands trial for alleged financial misdeeds and his role in the Jan 6, 2021, mob violence.

“The fact that the former prime minister has been held accountable, to a certain degree, makes me think that if Malaysia can do it, the United States should be able to do it as well,” says Kim.

Man On The Run opens in cinemas on Thursday.